“A” Backgammon Terms

A very bad roll; the opposite of a joker.

The formation of a player's checkers as they work together to block and attack the opponent, then and come home safely.

A move from the opponent's outer board to the player's outer board.

A feature that contributes to the strength of a position, such as made points and flexibility.  Compare: Liability.

Blitz (1).

See: Zone of attack.

An optional rule in money play: If both players throw the same number on the first roll of a game, the stakes are doubled. The doubling cube is turned to 2 and stays in the middle. Players usually agree to limit the number of automatic doubles to one per game.

Automatic doubles.

A dice roll which forces a player to leave a shot or break a valuable point (2).